Boom Lift Hydraulics

[JB4310]

Just something different to look at, these are JLG boom lifts, showing some of the components under the hoods. We use these machines 2-3 times year to maintain old churches, schools and other institutional type buildings.

The bigger one is an 86 footer and the smaller is a 66 foot, incredible machines that allow much safer access to the upper reaches of these high buildings.

Some expensive components in there, the main pump must cost a pretty penny, along with the main cylinder, which is a monster on the 86'

You could teach an entire hydraulics class with one of these things, not alot of electrical wiring either, just between the control panels and the actuators or what ever they are called. ALOT of HOSES!

That's a ~50 HP diesel driving the pump.

JB

 

[JB4310]

This is the 66'

 

[JB4310]

This is what they can do!

The tower is 80+ feet high, on the underside there are 1 inch holes thru the soffit where they would drop cables to pull up hemp rope block and tackle gear. I know some will say "you aint getting me up in that boom platform"
But how would you like to pull yourself up on a swing stage pulling over 300 feet of rope to get to the top!

On the huge rose windows there are still spikes where a guy on a Bosun's chair, tied off on the gable wall, would pull himself into position to work. the peak of the gable ends are 100 feet.

I still have the old block and tackle swing stage gear and Bosun's chair but rarely use it anymore, these machines save so much time.

JB

 

[JB4310]

Few more pics,
I've been working on this church since I was 15 years old.
I really enjoy it, and am grateful they entrust it's care to me. I like to show off these impressive pictures but of course this is not all I do, sometimes I'm working on very mundane projects, like cleaning gutters on a little old lady's ranch house. or doing basement drainage systems.

I don't really promote my painting ability, we mostly work on the slate roof and do the masonry restoration, but since we had the machine and the woodwork, as little as there is on this church, needed painting.... we are grateful to get the work. Did some last year and the rest this year.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

I love those units. I spent the winter rebuilding the booms on the 60' and 80' units. I'll get some 130' units in next winter. They seem to be very well put together and reliable. I'll post some pics of the booms disassembled later.

 

[jinman]

JB, do the JLG lifts have a 120 vac outlet in the bucket? Is that what the generator is for I see in your engine photos? That would be an awesome feature and wonder how they manage the power cord for the changing boom length and rotation. I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but I wouldn't think you'd want to hang a long extension cord from the bucket and there are plenty of times you'd need electrical power up there.

 

[JB4310]

JB, do the JLG lifts have a 120 vac outlet in the bucket? Is that what the generator is for I see in your engine photos? That would be an awesome feature and wonder how they manage the power cord for the changing boom length and rotation. I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but I wouldn't think you'd want to hang a long extension cord from the bucket and there are plenty of times you'd need electrical power up there.

Yeah it's a very handy feature, they call it "Sky Power" For my type of patch up- fix up work I don't really need ac power that much but I have used it and it was great, Just throw the switch and the engine rpm's come up a little and you got reliable juice.

I'm not sure of the watts but there is a 220 outlet as well and I'm sure they do alot of welding from these things on the new construction sites. Talk about a time saver...

There is also a a pressure washer line built in, you connect your pressure washer to the base of the machine and your wand connects up in the platform.
Another handy feature I've used before.

These "smaller" machines up to 86 feet have no limit in their motion. in other words you can boom straight out parallel to the ground 86 feet and swing an arc all the way up to it's max height. The larger machines 120+ feet can not do that, sometimes you actually loose horizontal reach with the larger machines. The largest I've ever used was 120 feet for a steeple.
They make them up to 150 feet !

Don't forget you can drive these things over the ground from max height in the basket. That's where you could get yourself into trouble. I heard of a couple of window washers getting killed in NYC on one of the big machines, layed the thing over. I guess they drove over a curb or down some type of ramp they could not identify from way up high.

JB

 

[rswyan]

Just something different to look at, these are JLG boom lifts .....

They build some very cool stuff ... including equipment for the military.

They, and their parent company, Oshkosh, are a customer of ours and I've repeatedly picked up/delivered to a number of JLG factories and assembly plants: McConnellsburg, Greencastle, Shippensburg, and Bedford, PA, and Orrville, OH, as well as Oshkosh facilities. (My next door neighbor is actually a welder at the Orrville plant)

They appear to be a very well-made and high-quality piece equipment .... about have to be ..... and it's very cool to be able to see 'em being made and put together ...... on the ground, from the production floor :laughing:

Nice to see that we still do this sorta thing here in the USA.

The story behind the company and the man who's vision it was is an interesting one:

JLG History

The bigger one is an 86 footer and the smaller is a 66 foot, incredible machines that allow much safer access to the upper reaches of these high buildings.

I was scoping out their website awhile back and think I recall that they had one that go like 150' or something (..... ain't no way .... :laughing

I know some will say "you aint getting me up in that boom platform"

Yeah .... that would be me ..... :laughing:

But how would you like to pull yourself up on a swing stage pulling over 300 feet of rope to get to the top!

I wouldn't ..... these days, ya wouldn't catch me up that high ..... even if I had a magic carpet to get me there .....

 

[JB4310]

Nice to see that we still do this sorta thing here in the USA.

The story behind the company and the man who's vision it was is an interesting one:

JLG History

I've been using boom lifts since 1985, they have been extremely reliable, especially the newer JLGs. So well designed and reliable, I hate to say but I assumed they were imported. There are many German components in it, engine and pump for sure.

I did not know the history of JLG, it's interesting but I never put the 2 together, the earlier machines were Groves. I didn't realise that's what the G in JLG stood for.

Most of them are 4x4 now, of course they have no suspension, but have 1 axle that will self level over rough terrain, but only when the turn table is parallel with the chassis. So if you need to work on uneven ground you need to position the machine with the self leveling activated. then you can swing around from there. You do not want to move over uneven ground with out the self level active or else you will easily get into situations with that rigid chassis where 1 wheel will end up a foot or more off the ground. That gets a little hairy as the machine will then teeter on just 2 diagonally opposed wheels.

That rigid chassis can make things interesting, I was driving down a short side street between 2 churches we work on with my guy following in the truck, I was moving fast as possible when I hit a little pot hole, BOOM! I didn't even realise what happened. The guy following me said my feet came off the basket floor about a foot and a half

Pics of a 120 footer from 2002, you can see the axles need to be set extended for full reach.

JB